For the Love of Books

I love to read, and I love books. I love the feel of books, I love the smell of books, I love to page through them slowly and devour every word on the page. Recently someone was asking about e-book devices, and while the concept is interesting (so many books at your fingertips wherever you go), I just don't see myself moving away from having that book in my hand to see and smell and feel. While hardback books look best on the bookshelf, the truth is I'm partial to paperbacks. One of my favorite scenes in Ever After (the Cinderella movie with Drew Barrymore) is when she is lovingly holding the paperback copy of Utopia* in her hand, a gift she received from her father. I can't really explain it, but there's something comforting in the bend of the book and the smallness of it. Hardback books are just so darn big. I do love the teeny tiny hardbacks, though, teeny tiny books are just adorable. My grandmother gave us small copies of a few of the classics when we were kids and I still have them - Jane Eyre and Anne of Green Gables.

So imagine my delight when a friend recently (ok, yesterday) introduced me to Goodreads, a web site dedicated to books and reading. This website allows you to search their book collection, rate the books you've read, write reviews and save it all to your own book profile. You can also read the reviews other people have written, review lists that people have created (and create your own lists), and much much more. There are author bios and links to other book sites. I've already rated over 200 books and posted 10 reviews. This was made a little easier since I've started keeping a book journal in 2007 to track the books I've read and what I thought of them. Just like on Netflix, you can have friends and recommend books to them (or have them recommend books to you). I'm in the process of getting Sandy, Lisa and Tabatha to join, they are my book buddies.

I love books so much I've even scrapbooked about them. Case in point, a layout about my all-time favorite book, King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry, and how it's forever tied to my memories of my all-time favorite horse, Copper. It was actually for a theme challenge (the theme was your favorite book) held by ACOT in November 2007. I scanned and printed out the book cover (my copy is a large paperback) to use on the page along with a picture of Copper and me. I used the We R Memory Keepers Urban Window Collection because the colors coordinated with the book cover and my picture. The quote is one I'd been saving from a package of canvas stickers by Paper House Productions.

In 2008 I created a layout about some more of my favorite books, the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I found images of the book covers online and included them in this digital layout using Kathryn Balint's Farm Kid kit. I believe that reading these books is why I have fond memories of maple sugar candy, which I found at this year's Food & Wine Festival at Epcot (Canada was selling this yummy dessert in the shape of a Canada Maple Leaf). And I know that reading these books inspired my love of the old west and the life of a settler. I also know that as romantic as it sounds in the book, suffering through droughts and cold winters and Indian raids would not have been the ideal life for me, but it's certainly fun to read about.

In 2008 I met author Beverly Lewis at book signing at the local Christian bookstore (which has since unfortunately gone out of business). She has written many fictional Amish accounts including the Abram's Daughters series. Here's a layout I created this year (2009) showcasing the picture of Beverly Lewis and I taken during the event. I cut a tree shape out of patterned paper from a DCWV stack and used plenty of American Crafts flowers and Creating Keepsakes brads to embellish the page. I was also able to use this fun book tag by Daisy D's that I've been holding onto forever. The buttons are Bo Bunny and the letters are All My Memories and EK Success.

Putting up my bookshelves earlier this year was a dream come true, as now my favorite books are out of the boxes and on the shelves where they belong. Since my bookshelves are almost full, I usually choose to find new books to read from the library and only buy the books I'm in love with and plan to read over and over (like the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, a gift from Lisa for my last birthday). Right now I'm reading several books, some are mine and some are borrowed from Lisa and Tabatha, who are still in the beginning stages of growing their book collections. I'm halfway through Native Dancer: Thoroughbred Legend by Eva J Boyd. I've read the first chapter of Marked (book 1 in the House of Night series) by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast, a mother-daughter writing duo. And of course I'm chomping at the bit to read Sea Glass (book 2 in the Glass series, a spin-off of the Study series) by Maria V Snyder. I would be much farther along on all 3 of these if I didn't keep stopping to reread parts of New Moon in anticipation of the New Moon movie that comes out November 20!

I hope this post inspires all of you to pick up a good book today!

* By the way, as proof you never stop learning, by looking up the link for Utopia to include in this blog post I learned that the man who wrote Utopia in 1516, Thomas More, is the same Thomas More I've read about in the many books I've read on the Tudor reign and Anne Boleyn.

Speaking of Children

Here's a face I haven't seen in a while - I haven't seen Miss Bianca all month. That might have something to do with me barely being home, but I still miss her and Libby Lynn. I need to get myself on their calendar. In the meantime I'm scrapping some past pictures. This one was from September when I took Bianca to the Children's Museum. She loved the airplane - at one point she insisted I get in the airplane with her and let me tell you that was a tight fit, so after that I managed to escape actually being in the plane.

In other news, we're praying for the swift recovery of John's Tio Cesar. If you are the praying-kind, please send some prayers up for him as well. "The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the main who does not fall away on account of me." (Matthew 11:5-6) Praise be to the Lord God, Maker of Heaven and Earth, to Him be the Glory.

Baby Logan Is Here

We've been waiting for him all year! Baby Logan arrived on Monday, November 2, at 12:18. He was 7 lb 8 oz, 22 inches long, and entered this world via C-Section. And though she's still working through the pain, I know Nicole (and Dana) are just thrilled to have him with them at last. Dad and I drove up on Monday once we'd heard the news and spent the week getting to know him and spending time with the family.

I managed to (just barely) finish Logan's baby book before we had to head up to Alabama to meet him. I promised Nicole I would make his baby book, and after the length of time she had to wait on her wedding album I didn't want to show up without it. That being said, I am a true procrastinator and waited too long to start as usual. Luckily my creative mind works well under pressure. I went with a jungle theme to match his nursery. Originally I thought I would do a baby book like the ones you buy - fitting the first 7 years into one book. But that didn't really work out for me, lol, it was too overwhelming to get more than one year into the book. I'll just have to give them another book next year, to capture all the joys of the 1 year old baby. The book I gave them covers birth - 12 months. I'm really excited with how it came out - my initial thought was to use Disney's Jungle Book items, but just like with the nursery there are a shortage of actual Jungle Book supplies. I did find one set of stickers with Mowgli and Baloo that I used throughout. The rest of the supplies came from the animal section at Violette's. I chose 3D stickers to cover all the different jungle animals (EK Success and Jolee's "The Wild Collection"), animal print alpha stickers (Reminisce), and two pieces of patterned paper to compliment each animal (most of the animal patterned paper is from Reminisce's Safari line). Die Cuts With a View cardstock, both Fall and Neutral stacks, were my mainstay to work with these jungle animal patterned papers and embellishments, as well as Karen Foster and Junkitz brads and journaling cards from My Mind's Eye. There were other supplies used too, but for once I didn't take the time to catalog my supply list, I was too busy creating layouts. Here are a few of the pages that were included in the album:

The cover page - I've always loved these journaling cards by My Mind's Eye, so I had to include one of those. The colors in this lovely sunset paper inspired my color schemes as I worked on the book.

This two-page spread is dedicated to the day of his birth - the birth certificate or pictures can go on the left side, and pictures can go on the mats on the right. The calendar, from the Maya Road sheers collection that my friend Claire gave me, can be marked with the date of his birth and his and Nicole's hospital bracelets can go in the library card pocket.

When I was looking through my jungle purchases I immediately fell in love with the zebra paper for this two-page layout on Logan's first visitors. The herd of zebras just screams "Welcoming Committee" to me, and that's exactly what we were. The Creative Imaginations lined paper is attached to form a side pocket, where congratulations cards and other papers can be tucked.

The giraffe paper is one of my very favorites, the colors on it are so rich, and I paired it up with the glitter cardstock that I found. This two-page layout is for Logan's homecoming - the jungle nursery pictures should look great on here. Of course some more journaling cards were in order as well, this album gave me some practice on how to incorporate those into layouts.

In order to allow Nicole and Dana to capture important moments and events in Logan's first year, I felt I needed to include some strictly journaling pages as well. I used PowerPoint to create these chart pages - some of them have room at the bottom for pictures or memorabilia, such as the Hearing & Speech Page on the left, while some of them required all of the 12x12 area, such as the milestones for baby's first year on the right.

Here is Baby Logan:

And here I am with my newest nephew:

I'm back home now and I miss everyone already! Of course at the same time I'm glad to be home to see the rest of my family - it's hard to have loved ones spread across the country.